


No Boys Allowed

by Craftybadger1234



Series: Missing and odd moments: Fifth Year [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Animagus, Gen, Gryffindor Common Room, Hogwarts Fifth Year, Humor, Marauders' Era, Stairs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-09
Updated: 2018-10-09
Packaged: 2019-07-28 14:31:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16243598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Craftybadger1234/pseuds/Craftybadger1234
Summary: The boysneedto see what's up the stairs... for the Map. But that's easier said than done.





	No Boys Allowed

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to CleopatraIsMyName for looking this over for me! :)
> 
> This piece was going to be a super depressing exploration of the potential for boy/girl or teacher/student trauma-inducing encounters in various common rooms and dorms but that was - well - depressing. So I scrapped it all and went for something lighthearted. I’ll leave the depressing abuse story line for someone else. Enjoy!

It didn’t take the boys long to realize the best time to try to get up the girls’ staircase was around one in the morning. Remus was asleep and wouldn’t whine at them about lost sleep and invasion of privacy. The common room was empty so no one could spy and report them. And best of all, the stairs had time to reset before morning so no one could see they’d attempted anything.

It also didn’t take long to realize the stairs themselves were not charmed to repel boys, but the entrance itself. Levitation didn’t help because the boys still had to cross some invisible barrier to access the stairs. Charms were clearly out.

Transfiguration was the next best guess. They tried some basic human transfiguration, but that didn’t fool the stairs. There were potential potions to try but nothing they could brew at the school.

“There’s nothing for it. Time to try our animagus forms,” James said gloomily. He sighed then shifted to his stag form. As expected, his antlers were too wide to pass through the doorway. Human again, he shook his head. “Can’t be me.”

“I’ve got this,” Sirius said with a wicked smile. He changed into Padfoot and licked James’s hand before taking a tentative step up the staircase. The boys’ faces lit up as he twirled a tight circle on the third step.

James shoved at Peter in excitement. “I can’t believe this worked! It _worked_!”

They watched Padfoot make the first turn, then could do nothing but wait with baited breath. Moments later, he came barrelling down the stairs and shifted back to Sirius.

Looking guiltily over his shoulder he whispered, “Oh man, I was almost seen!” He pulled James and Peter to the sofa and they pretended to look busy. Sounds of doors opening and closing could be heard, but no one came to investigate. “I think Padfoot’s too big, too noticeable. Can’t have a dog running around the dorm.”

“It’s down to you, Peter,” James said with mock seriousness. “You’re going to have to investigate for us. Get the layout for the Map.”

“Why me? What if I’m spotted?”

“Nonsense, you’ll have an easy enough time hiding, small as Wormtail is.”

“But - “

“Quit whining and go!”

James and Sirius pulled and shoved at Peter until he finally snapped, “All right! Leave off!” With a last sneer, he shrunk into Wormtail and scurried up the stairs.

The other two waited, brimming over with excitement as his success seemed certain. An hour later, Wormtail returned with a mostly accurate description of the girls’ dorms.

Remus raised a brow at them the next morning when the common room chatter went on about one of the girls seeing a rat in her dorm. But the three boys shrugged and went on inking the floor plan with only a, “probably looks like the boys’ dorms anyway.”

The next night, James was pulling Peter down the stairs to the common room. 

“Why are we here? It’s late and I’m tired and I thought we already got the layout.”

“Yeah yeah. This is different.” Looking over his shoulder at the boys’ stairs one last time, James pulled a note from his pocket. “I need Wormtail to take this upstairs. To Lily’s room.”

“What? No! I’m not going in there again! You heard them all talking yesterday. Someone saw me! I can’t risk going in again.”

“Oh please, no one cares about a single rat. Probably everyone’s sleeping and no one will notice anyway.” James shoved the note at Peter. “Here take the note. And this.” He yanked a button off his shirt and transfigured it into a small rose.

“James…”

“Stop whining and do it. Leave it on her trunk for me. And don’t read it!”

Peter hung his head, but knew he’d have to do as James asked. Wormtail sniffed at the letter and the rose and squeaked at James.

“Oh, sorry. Here, let me - “ James rolled the letter up tight and stuck it to the rose with a charm so that Wormtail could just hold the rose in his teeth. “Great. Good luck!”

He watched Wormtail struggle up the stairs with the flower in his mouth. He dropped it twice before he disappeared from James’s sight. But James smiled nonetheless. Wormtail would deliver his note and Lily would surely be impressed with the display of magic that managed to get a note to her in a place where James couldn’t enter. Let her ponder his cleverness then…

A loud snap jolted him from his reverie and Wormtail came tumbling down the staircase. 

With a large rat trap clinging to his right arm and leg.

He squealed and squirmed as he made it to the bottom. James flicked his wand and released him. “Peter! Are you all right?”

Wormtail became Peter on a moan. He rolled on the floor, cradling his arm.

“What happened? Are you all right?”

Peter gasped, “There was a trap. At the top of the stairs.”

“Yeah, I see that. Are you all right?”

“No, my arm might be broken and my leg hurts like a son of a - “

“Wait! What about the letter?”

“I dropped it you twit! Because I got caught in a trap! A _trap_!”

“Well I can’t let anyone find it now, can I?” James summoned the letter and rose, tucking them away in his pocket. That called to mind the trap, which he vanished. “Let’s get you to the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey can mend your arm in a heartbeat.”

Peter bit back a yelp as James hauled him to his feet. Leaning heavily on James and trying not to put pressure on his injured leg, they limped to the hospital wing.

A brief story about a bad fall from the bed, and Madam Pomfrey had Peter mended. She tucked him into the hospital bed for the night and nodded to James that he could pick up Peter in the morning.

As soon as they were dressed, all three boys showed up to take Peter to breakfast. Good as new, he told Sirius and Remus about their little ‘adventure.’

“What I want to know,” Remus said, “is how you got caught in the trap in the first place.”

“Because… there was a trap… at the top of the stairs…”

“Right, I get that. But you’re not actually a rat so you wouldn’t _actually_ fall for the bait - “

He cut off at Peter’s light blush. Riotous laughter broke out among the three boys, making Peter’s blush even deeper.

“Wait,” James said with a laugh. “You mean you actually went for the bait?”

“Oh shut up! Like I haven’t seen you distracted by a lush patch of grass!”


End file.
